Authors: Barbara Erling, Kuba Stezycki and Kacper Pempel
BIALOWIZA, Poland (Reuters) – Surrounded by dense forest, a dozen people huddled near a knife-edge fence on the Belarusian border, waiting for a chance to climb over the fence or push past it to head west into Poland.
On the other side, heavily armed Polish border guards and soldiers walked or drove back and forth, keeping a close eye on the group of people, mostly young people from the Middle East, some of whom had cuts on their bodies from sharp wires.
Far-right parties calling for tighter controls faced off against centrist movements in European parliamentary elections in Poland on Sunday, with tensions running high across Europe over immigration.
Here, this standoff has additional geopolitical advantages. Poland and the European Union accuse Belarus and Russia of trying to sow chaos by pushing migrants away from their borders since 2021, in what Warsaw calls a “hybrid war.” Minsk and Moscow rejected the accusations.
According to Polish government data, the number of recent arrivals has been increasing. What Poland sees as a war has taken its toll this week, with a soldier patrolling the border dying from injuries sustained during a clash with migrants on May 28.
In response, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist, pro-EU government announced plans to reintroduce no-go zones at the border.
Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told Reuters: “Unfortunately, this border is not secure. The purpose of this area is to ensure that no one is exposed to the attacks that Polish soldiers suffered.”
over the fence
Back at the fence on Monday, the group continued to wait. Ahmed Leback, 24, from Aleppo, Syria, said he had been there for more than a month. His brother gave up and returned to Belarus, but nothing has been heard from him since.
“I came out of the war looking for a better life. But I found it very difficult to cross the border,” said Ahmed, a 35-year-old Syrian English teacher. He made four attempts to climb the fence.
Under current arrangements, migrants can apply for asylum in EU member Poland once they arrive on Polish territory.
A day later, Noaman Al-Hemyari, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Yemen, managed to break through the fence.
He told Reuters that in a forest on the Polish side of the border, he and others built a ladder out of wood, scraps of fabric and plastic bags and scaled the barrier as night fell.
He initially applied for a Polish student visa from Yemen but was refused, then traveled to Moscow, then Belarus and later to the border areas, where he spent 22 days.
“We were captured by the Belarussians. They beat us… and then they said ‘go,'” said Noaman, visibly relieved, with leaves still in his hair.
“They (smugglers) said it was easy… they lied to us. If I had known this was the case, I wouldn’t have come.”
Agata Kluczewska, head of the local immigration support group that provides food, medicine and transportation services, said that once the restricted area is established, the situation of immigrants will become more difficult.
She came to the forest to help Noaman and his five companions begin the asylum application process and notify border agents who would take them to a processing center.
She said any return to stricter measures could leave more people stranded on the Belarusian side and force volunteers like her back to the days of having to go out in secret to help arriving migrants.
“The regional rules will have a big impact on us,” she said. “We’re going to have to start hiding again.”
